Spurs Expose the Risks of Heat’s Scrambling Defense

The Heat's aggressive defense often left Danny Green and other Spurs wide open on the perimeter in Game 3.Credit
Lucy Nicholson/Reuters

The dominant Miami Heat team that dismantled the San Antonio Spurs’ offense in the second half of Game 2, was, in a nominal sense, the same group that took the court in Game 3 Tuesday night. The results could not have been more different. The Spurs blistered the Heat from deep and left them ragged and gasping for breath on the way to a comprehensive 113-77 victory.

All told, the Spurs hit 16 3-pointers, an N.B.A. finals record, 13 of which came from the role players Danny Green and Gary Neal. Relatively minor characters throughout the Spurs’ season, Green and Neal benefited from exquisite ball movement and the Heat’s listless defensive effort. Though the game stayed close in the first half, it was clear the Heat were out of sorts defensively.

Two second-quarter 3-pointers typified the uncharacteristic breakdowns that plagued the Heat:

On a play that ended with Green’s 3-pointer from the corner, Neal pushed the ball upcourt off a rebound and received an early ball screen from Matt Bonner. The Heat defenders switched, leaving forward Shane Battier on Neal. Battier appeared to have the play bottled up, but as Neal drove, Dwyane Wade needlessly left Green to help on defense, giving Neal an obvious outlet pass and Green an easy make from the corner.

Later, an obvious mix-up between LeBron James and Mike Miller resulted in both players chasing Manu Ginobili around the perimeter as Neal, a deadeye shooter, wandered up to the 3-point line. By the time the Heat defenders sorted out their responsibilities with Ginobili, Neal had the ball and was rising to nail the shot.

The Heat’s scrambling defense is a high-risk, high-reward system. When they send two defenders to the ball, they are hoping to force the offense to abandon the prescribed play, or, better still, force a bad decision that leads to a Heat fast break. But when one of those two things does not happen, the Heat are suddenly left exposed, playing three on four.

“The way the Heat have been playing Tony and Manu, they’ve kind of trapped the pick-and-roll,” Neal said. “So guys like me, Danny and Kawhi are going to be able to get shots.”

The risk of failing to discombobulate the offense is never higher than against a team full of shooters that moves the ball quickly.

“Every shot they wanted to get they got,” Heat Coach Erik Spoelstra said. “We did not disrupt them.”

The question going forward is whether the Heat gave up those shots because the Spurs have figured out how to expose the Heat’s defensive system, or because they did not execute a tenable game plan with the necessary urgency and energy.

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The Heat face a similar dilemma on the offensive end, where James has been neutralized by a defensive scheme reminiscent of how the Spurs covered him in the 2007 N.B.A. finals when he still played for Cleveland. Then, James was a 21-year-old phenomenon without a jump shot, not the well-rounded scoring machine he has become.

James has developed into an excellent jump shooter, but he remains a superlative scorer at the rim, where his power and skill are unmatched. To answer the problems he presents, Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich has turned to an unconventional solution. Essentially, the Spurs are walling off the paint with multiple defenders and surrendering as many open jump shots as James wants to shoot. James is so good at the rim that an easy 15-footer, a shot almost no team wants to concede, becomes a welcome alternative.

James is one of the brightest players in the N.B.A. and has figured out how to solve complex defenses in the past. But the Spurs’ defensive scheme is not especially difficult to understand; there are obvious solutions, if not ideal ones. James at times appears to be overthinking, hesitating when a good opportunity is staring him in the face because it is not the kind of shot he is accustomed to creating.

“It’s not just us stopping him,” said Green, who has performed admirably against James despite a marked size disparity. “He’s kind of stopping himself out there, and we’re getting a little lucky.”

In the finals, Wade, who has been something of a mess all over the court, and James have combined to convert just 28 percent of their shots that are not layups. Unable to find creases in the Spurs’ defense, the two stars have attempted only 14 free throws in the series’ three games. In the regular season, they combined to average 13 free throws a game.

After Game 3, James vowed to study the film and find solutions to the Spurs’ passive-aggressive defensive strategy. Spoelstra likewise alluded to schematic adjustments that could help James be “comfortable and confident,” but James’s intensity and energy were not adequate to the task of beating a team as smart and focused as the Spurs.

Now trailing two games to one, the Heat must win three of the next four to claim their second straight title. To do that, they will need to play with a near-desperate energy and focus. (One factor in the Heat’s favor is Spurs point guard Tony Parker’s injured hamstring, which may limit him in future contests.)

Still, recovering from Tuesday’s blowout will start with James, who must not only take and make shots, but set the emotional tone for his team. Even considering all of James’s accomplishments this season, leading the Heat to a series victory now would surely stand alone as the greatest triumph of his career.